She says she agrees with his immigration policies: "As long as you come here legally and get a proper job … we need immigrants. Who's going to vacuum our living rooms and clean up after us? Americans don't like to do that."

Donald Trump has mulled a run for president for years.

That's according to his ex-wife Ivana Trump, who toldThe New York Post in a candid interview that while they were married, "[Ronald] Reagan or somebody" suggested that the billionaire businessman run for president. But then scandal hit, when his affair with Marla Maples led to the couple's split in 1991.

At that point, "American women loved me and hated him," says Ivana, mother to three grown children — Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric — with her former husband. "So there was no way that he would go into [politics] at that point, but he was always tooling around with the idea.”

Despite their acrimonious split, the former couple are now friends, and Ivana says she even has been advising him during his campaign.

"I suggest a few things," she says, adding that they regularly speak about his public appearances and often tells him to "be more calm," advice that he doesn't take easily. "Donald cannot be calm," she says. "He's very outspoken. He just says it as it is."

She also claims that his motto "You think it, I say it" was her idea. "He's no politician; he's a businessman," she says. "He knows how to talk. He can give an hour speech without notes."

Ivana — who grew up in Czechoslovakia and emigrated to the U.S. — says she agrees with Donald's immigration policies, saying she has "nothing against Mexicans" but doesn't agree that they should be able to come to this country illegally then give birth to children who automatically become citizens and then collect benefits paid for by American tax dollars."

She adds: "As long as you come here legally and get a proper job … we need immigrants. Who's going to vacuum our living rooms and clean up after us? Americans don't like to do that."

While Trump has yet to name who he might appoint to senior roles if elected, Ivana says he'd pick "fantastic advisers, like Carl Icahn."

Ivana adds that she believes Donald's current wife, Milania, will be "OK" as first lady and that he has a lot of respect for women, given that he "gave me a chance" by putting her in charge of interior design at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

But Ivana — who backtracks on former claims that Donald forced himself on her sexually after a scalp-reduction surgery to remove a bald spot went wrong — can't seem to decide whether he is a feminist. The Post article first claims she said "I don't think he's a feminist," before changing her mind via her reps three times. (The final answer? He is a feminist.)

As for Donald's manhood, which has become a hot topic during the presidential campaign? She says: "If there was a problem there, Donald would not have five kids."